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Some Candidates Get Early Start on Fund-Raising for 2013

On April 3, Corey Johnson, the chairman of Community Board 4 in Manhattan, officially began his campaign for the City Council seat that will be vacated by Christine C. Quinn, the Council speaker.

Just three months later, Mr. Johnson has already raised all the money he needs, and then some, for a primary that will not take place until September 2013.

Mr. Johnson’s estimated total, $166,000 — which does not include the $92,500 in matching money he expects to get under the city’s campaign finance system — represents one of the earliest, and strongest, fund-raising starts to any Council campaign.

All the city’s major elected posts are on the ballot next year, and in about half the races, there are expected to be no incumbents because of term limits and efforts by elected officials to run for higher office. At least 22 of the 51 Council seats, four of the five borough presidencies and the citywide positions of mayor, comptroller and public advocate are expected to be open races, and as a result, many campaigns have already adopted an accelerated pace.

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Corey Johnson, with a teacher and her class in Chelsea, is running for the City Council seat being vacated by Christine C. Quinn.Credit
Damon Winter/The New York Times

Mr. Johnson is not the only one expected to max out, in political parlance, by reaching the threshold for the maximum amount of public matching funds. At least one other candidate for City Council — Ken Biberaj from the Upper West Side — and one likely candidate for Manhattan borough president — Julie Menin — said that they, too, had completed fund-raising for the primary.

Wednesday was the last day of the latest six-month fund-raising cycle, and Monday is the deadline for campaigns to report contributions, as well as expenses, to the city’s Campaign Finance Board.

Even endorsements are arriving early, a year before the fields of candidates will be complete. On Tuesday, the Working Families Party endorsed City Council candidates in Astoria, Queens, (Costa Constantinides) and Bushwick, Brooklyn (Jesus Gonzalez). And former Mayor Edward I. Koch, saying that he expected “a major shift” in the city’s political structure as a result of the election, announced that he was backing Mark Thompson, a longtime friend, for the East Side seat that is expected to be vacated by Councilman Daniel R. Garodnick, who is running for comptroller.

“The coming years will be challenging for New York City, with a new mayor and speaker of the City Council, and dozens of new City Council members taking office,” Mr. Koch wrote in an endorsement letter on Tuesday.

Getting an early start has been made easier recently by term limits, because potential candidates can plan for vacancies. And the city’s matching-funds system, which rewards candidates for soliciting contributions in smaller amounts, offers an incentive for planning events, said Jerry Skurnik, a veteran political consultant.

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Ken Biberaj, a City Council candidate from the Upper West Side, said he had completed fund-raising for the 2013 primary.Credit
Damon Winter/The New York Times

“That kind of fund-raising actually takes more time, so candidates want to get it done early,” Mr. Skurnik said. “I think it’s just a growing trend.”

In the race for Manhattan borough president, Ms. Menin, the former chairwoman of Community Board 1, has raised $950,000 in eight months. Another likely candidate for borough president, Councilwoman Jessica S. Lappin, has raised an estimated $740,000 to date and should easily reach the maximum by the end of 2012.

In one of the most closely watched races for City Council — the Chelsea seat now held by Ms. Quinn — Mr. Johnson has seized the upper hand, financially, over two other likely candidates. He also has some residual name recognition; a decade ago, when he was the co-captain of his high school football team in northeastern Massachusetts, his decision to tell his teammates that he is gay drew national news coverage.

“I didn’t always want to be known as the gay football player,” he said. “Now if people meet me they have no idea; they just know me as a member of the community board.”

On the Upper West Side, Mr. Biberaj is one of several candidates hoping to succeed Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer, who is also eying the Manhattan borough president’s post (but has not yet begun to raise money). After starting his campaign in late February, Mr. Biberaj, an executive at the Russian Tea Room, said on Wednesday that he had raised about $130,000 from 830 donors.

Only one non-incumbent candidate in previous elections came close to raising as much money in a single six-month fund-raising cycle, a year before the election, as Mr. Johnson and Mr. Biberaj, according to the Campaign Finance Board. That was John C. Liu, now the comptroller, who raised $100,000 in 2000 to start a successful bid for City Council.

A version of this article appears in print on July 12, 2012, on page A17 of the New York edition with the headline: Some Candidates Get Early Start on Fund-Raising for 2013. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe